Brand New Day - BusinessWeek

We Like Chocolate and Beer. Cigarettes, Not That Much

Michael Arndt — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:30 -0500

Turns out candy is dandy, at least during recessions. Beer is pretty OK, too, but cigarettes are a vice that even smokers increasingly say they ain't worth it. Overall, says the latest customer satisfaction survey by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, American consumers are as happy with grocery-store goods as they were three months ago.

Among food companies, Hershey and Nestle both moved up 2 points while Mars gained 1 point from a year earlier, to an average score of 86 (out of a possible 100). That's their highest score ever. The trio last had an upsurge that big in the 2001 recession and in 2004, when worries about the widening Iraq War and higher fuel prices had consumers scurrying back to comfort foods, says Ross School Professor Claes Fornell, who heads the index.

Not every comfort food maker is more beloved, however. Conagra's standing dropped 7 points from a year earlier, to 78, an all-time low. Fornell attributes the decline to higher prices—Conagra jacked them up an average of 25%. Heinz retains its No. 1 ranking, with a score of 89.

Beer still hits the spot. Customers say they're more satisfied with their beer buys than ever before, pushing the industry's average score to 84. The biggest gainer: Anheuser-Busch, which rose 4 points to an all-time high of 85. Yes, the company is no longer American. But U.S. consumers appreciate its cheaper brands Natural Light and Busch. Meantime, Coors, which is generally pricier, sagged 2 points, to 81. Miller moved up 1 point, to 83.

Higher prices, this time from federal taxes that more than doubled, made smokers think less of cigarettes. Both Philip Morris and Reynolds American sagged to 72, falling 9 points and 8 points, respectively. Neither had ever been below 75.

Blu Dot's 'Real Good' Marketing Experiment

Helen Walters — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:53:23 -0500

Small companies without the vast budgets of large corporations have no choice but to think creatively about how to market their wares. On Wednesday November 4th, Minneapolis-based furniture design Blu Dot is launching an interesting-sounding experiment in New York City. Capitalizing on city denizens' apparent obsession with both leaving and taking pieces of furniture on the sidewalk, Blu Dot is leaving 25 of its iconic "Real Good" metal chairs (one shown) around the city.

Banking on the idea that they won't be left lying around for long, the designers hope that each one will be taken to a "real good" home. There's a 2.0 twist, too: the chair has its own Twitter account, while most of the chairs have been embedded with a GPS chip so that they can be tracked online in real time. "Who will take them? Where will they end up? How will they be used?" asks Blu Dot co-founder John Christakos. "We have visions you may find one under a bridge being used by a group of homeless people, another in a hipster’s apartment. We don't know what's going to happen. It's fun."

Both Christakos and Michael Hart, co-founder and creative director of Mono, the agency working with Blu Dot on the project, are aware that the project could backfire. After all, some New Yorkers might not respond well to a chair left lying in the street with a potentially ominous cell phone/GPS tracker/battery pack device attached. And some might not like the idea that they were stalked by the project organizers, who intend to approach the chairs' new owners to see if they'd take part in a documentary film about the project.

But Hart and Christakos are both open to seeing what happens. "This isn’t about tricking people. It's more about curiosity and an invitation," says Hart. "If folks aren't happy to tell their story then we’ll totally respect that. It’s not about invading their privacy. And really, if nothing else then we will have given the city of New York 25 free chairs."

Esquire's 'Ultimate Bachelor Pad' brings in ad dollars

Helen Walters — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:38:48 -0500

Everyone knows that print magazine advertising figures aren't quite adding up as publishing executives might like. So I was intrigued to be taken on a tour of Esquire magazine's "ultimate bachelor pad." The tony, 9,200 square foot space is actually two adjacent penthouse apartments (valued at around $20 million) in the heart of SoHo in Manhattan. Together, the pads serve two purposes: to show off a carefully curated environment fit for 2009 Esquire Man—and to lock in sponsors to buying pages of magazine advertising.

First things first. It seems like EM'09 himself isn't too troubled by the state of the economy. In this world, he shoots pool on an $80,000, digitally-enhanced table designed by Obscura Digital (shown, left. Pool balls, tracked by motion sensors above, "reveal" the image of an Esquire magazine cover as they roll across the table). He hosts poker nights in a room filled with large portraits of "poker-faced" celebrities and a Baccarat chandelier designed by Philippe Starck. His art installation room shows an incredible piece by video artist, Luke Dubois, and when all the excitement gets too much, he can step outside and hop into one of his two hot tubs to stare out over Manhattan or along the terrace, past the sun screens/night lights custom-designed for Davidoff (below).

And as for the advertisers? Well, Stephen Jacoby, the project's mastermind and Esquire's associate publisher of marketing, was keen to emphasize that sponsors were still keen to participate in this, the seventh year. "This is a huge undertaking for the magazine and our staff. We don’t automatically say we’ll do it again," he said in a phone interview. "But we took it to market last fall, when the economy started falling apart, and people said 'sure, sign me up'. It wasn’t so much us forcing as them pushing."

Room sponsors this year include Diesel, which installed an in-home recording studio, and Hugo Boss, which took care of the master bedroom. The brands also committed to taking out six ad pages in the magazine, at around $100k a pop. Jacoby declined to share details of Esquire's own investment in the project, but reckons that this year they sold 50 incremental ad pages off the back of it. Not to be sneezed at.

Of course, show homes are nothing new, but Esquire also throws charity events at the venue, so that movers and shakers can actually play with the technology and the toys. (I do wonder how the swirly moving graphics on the pool table mix with alcohol.) Around 5,000 people attend an event to see the space up close in the two months that it's open. Mere mortals get to take the virtual tour.

Images: Zach DeSart

CMO Poll: Social Media Better Done In-House

David Kiley — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:24:21 -0500

The CMO CLUB Weekly Poll Question: Which of your groups is best equipped to help you with your social media efforts today?

Survey question conducted October 1 – October 7, 2009

114 CMOs responded:

65.6% In House
15.6% Interactive Agency
9.4% PR Firm
9.4% Social Media Agency
0% Creative/Ad Agency

A few Quotes from CMOs in the club who responded:

“With all the chatter in the industry on social media and all the agencies scrambling to stay relevant through social media, the combination of our internal marketing expertise and hiring millennials in our group that understand social networks, is working well."

“Our strategies for engaging our consumers and differentiating ourselves have not changed. Social media is simply new channels for us that we have incorporated into our marketing mix”.
“Social Media is changing the way our entire company works and engages with stakeholders. It’s not a marketing initiative but a company wide initiative.”

“We looked at a few social media agencies but they understood social networks but not our industry or customer engagement insights for our products.”

“We are still thinking through our social marketing strategies and I have assigned a team of 3 within my marketing group to help leverage social media as part of larger integrated marketing programs.”

To learn more about The CMO Club, go to www.thecmoclub.com

The CMO CLUB Thought Leadership Summit, Nov. 12-13, San Francisco: www.regonline.com/cmoclubsummit
Sign up for "CMOs only" dinners at www.regonline.com/cmoclub_dinners

Deutsch Takes Over Lowe: Done Deal

David Kiley — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:19:47 -0500

Interpublic Group of Companies made it official today. Its Deutsch unit will absorb Lowe & Partners in the U.S.

But they didn't take my advice by bagging the Lowe name in the U.S.

Instead...ugh...Deutsch will be known as "Deutsch Inc.: A Lowe & Partners Company."

Of course, no one in their right mind will call it anything but Deutsch. But still...

Why are ad agencies so often terrible at naming themselves?

I disagreed with the idea of renaming J. Walter Thompson JWT. Indeed, it makes sense, I guess, from a logo standpoint. But I can't bring myself to call it anything but J. Walter...or Thompson.

The worst ever was when a merged agency actually called itself CME-KHBB. And then there was Messner, Vetere, Berger, McNamee, Schmeterrer: Euro RSCG. Ick.

I often wondered what the clients thought. "You can't even market yourself coherently...what am I paying you for?"

Oh, well....here are the details of the announcement. But I say....Lowe is dead (in the U.S) Long live Deutsch.

INTERPUBLIC ALIGNS DEUTSCH INC. AND LOWE WORLDWIDE
• Deutsch To Assume Management Oversight of Lowe Operations in North America Under Leadership of Linda Sawyer
• Deutsch New York to Absorb Lowe NY Office
• Moves Further Strengthen Lowe Worldwide, Adding Dynamic U.S. Hub Agency to Growing Global Network
• Deutsch Gains Access to Global Presence to Secure and Grow Multinational Client Relationships

New York, NY – October 15, 2009 – Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) announced today that it will be aligning its Deutsch agency with Lowe Worldwide. Deutsch will become the North American hub of the Lowe & Partners global network, assuming management oversight of Lowe operations in North America, including Lowe New York, Lowe Roche Toronto and Lowe Healthcare, under the leadership of Linda Sawyer. Deutsch NY will absorb the Lowe New York operations. Lowe Roche and Lowe Healthcare will continue to operate without any change to their current leadership teams and branding. Deutsch LA will also be unaffected, continuing to run as an integrated agency, reporting to Deutsch Inc. Going forward, Deutsch will operate under the name “Deutsch Inc., a Lowe & Partners Company.”

Deutsch Likely To Swallow Lowe at IPG

David Kiley — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:54:03 -0500

Interpublic Group of Companies is in advanced talks to merge the U.S. offices of Lowe with Deutsch. The talks were first reported by Adweek.

Lowe has been in disarray for years, dating back to when agency founder Frank Lowe went on a buying spree around the world in the late 1990s, adding agencies to a global network with little care or attention to operating efficiencies, overlaps, governance, proper accounting, or anything else resembling business sense.

[Full disclosure: I worked at Lowe for three years, from 1994-1997]

The network today has 70 offices across the globe and rakes in about $400 million in total revenue. Deutsch has two U.S. offices, and brings in $200 million in revenues. Hmmmmmmm. Which agency seems better run?

Lowe's U.S. office has been a revolving door of top managers for years.

When IPG bought Deutsch in 2000, there had been talk of combining Lowe and Deutsch then. IPG management and even Frank Lowe, who was still chairman in those days, saw Deutsch chairman Donny Deutsch as just the executive who could make sense of the agency, which had been merged with Scali,McCabe, Sloves; Lintas; and Bozell, adding up to a total "dog's dinner" of agency culture.

The talk now is that Deutsch would swallow Lowe's clients and the people who are critical to running them. But the Lowe name would likely go away in the U.S.

Deutsch has always been a much stronger brand in the U.S. than Lowe. And it would be crazy to sully or confuse it by naming it Deutsch/Lowe. That is my opinion, anyway, and one shared by plenty of people at Deutsch.

NBC Heroes Saved By Dubious DVR Data

David Kiley — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:52:29 -0500

NBC's "Heroes" has been spared the axe because ratings for the network drama were better than originally measured by Nielsen when digital-video-recorder viewership was factored in.

This is flawed logic at its best and reveals how endangered the TV network model is.

As reported by The New York Times, the ratings climbed from an anemic 2.6 to 3.7 when DVR viewership within a few days of the show's live airing was added in. That is enough, it seems, to keep the show on the air.

But why?

DVRs allow people to easily watch programs whenever they wish. The networks are touting the data as a plus. But DVRs also, of course, allow us to skip the ads entirely.

If rating points are there to determine how much advertisers are willing to pay for the ad time, then what difference does the DVR data make if people aren't watching the ads.

CBS has an answer for this. The network says 44% of the people watching programming on DVRs are watching the ads too. Less than half. That's a business model?

But let's face it, the real number isn't nearly that high.

I am a habitual time-shifter. Ninety-five percent of the TV I watch is time-shifted with my DVR. The ads don't get skipped under four scenarios: I have fallen asleep; I am distracted from the program by a magazine, my laptop or my son; I am in another room with audio on (a baseball game); I have died and no one has yet discovered my body.

In each case, I'd say the advertisers were hardly getting their money's worth. My own habits shouldn't necessarily be projected over the DVR population. But...I actually think they can be.

I am dubious of CBS's research about how many people are watching ads on DVR playback. The networks are entirely self interested here. It reminds me of when I try to track all the food and calories I take in on www.sparkpeople.com

My intentions are good, but I wouldn't trust the data.

Are Brand Managers Dead?

David Kiley — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:37:30 -0500

Ad Age today previews a report due from Forrester Research that suggests that the day of the “brand manager” is dead.

The article says the recommendation by the research firm is to think of and re-name the person in charge of managing the brand as “brand advocate.”

The suggestion reflects the age of social media, and that a brand, any brand, today is not so much "managed" as it is…advocated? by someone inside Procter & Gamble or Unilever.

With all do respect to Forrester, I think the firm still has it wrong.

With a nod to Larry Light, CEO of Arcature, and the former CMO of McDonald’s, the correct term and description for today’s brand manager is really “Brand Editor.”

[See Larry Light's comments about "Brand Trust" in Businessweek's recent "Best Global Brands" report.]

Light says he realized, while working at McDonald’s as chief marketing officer, that his real job was “Brand Editor.” He believed, and still does, that consumers and other forces, like the media, had too much control over how McDonald’s was perceived for him to pretend he had so much control.

He reckoned that his overall marketing scheme, which encompassed advertising, PR/Communications, franchisee communications, the Web, online forums, the start of social media, “should be treated like a magazine.” And he was the editor-in-chief.

Few people read a magazine front to back unless they are trapped on a plane, says Light. He says that his insight was that McDonald’s had to offer different audiences different “content,” not ads. But all the content needed to tie back to a central brand idea. BusinessWeek, for example, or People or Time, have different sections and a variety of content for different readers, and each story is edited, art directed and written to a brand identity and mission that make them a BusinessWeek story or People story. The same thinking, thinks Light, should be applied to a brand like McDonald's, Chevy or Microsoft when it comes to creating brand content.

Light says that each piece of content McDonald’s puts out should reflect the “I’m Lovin’ It,” idea, but also that McDonald’s is accountable and that it is a brand that listens.

This thinking came about at a time when McDonald’s business was falling and its reputation was sinking with Moms who are the chief editors of what their families consume. McDonald’s not only changed its menu but began treating its “Brand Magazine” more like a real forum and less like an advertorial property. That’s why you saw the company engaging in issues like obesity, physical fitness, animal rights, and the environmental impact of big agriculture. And the company is not bashful about entering public conversations and debates where it knows it can’t come out smelling as good as its french fries. Take the current debate it is in over how humanely chickens are killed for their McNuggets at chicken farms: The company hasn’t figured out a way it can make the animal rights activists happy, but it stays engaged in the debate. It keeps listening.

In fact, Light, who recently co-authored a book: “Six Rules For Brand Revitalization: Learn How Companies Like McDonalds Can Reenergize Their Brands (Wharton Press), was ahead of his time as he was enacting this perspective at the fast-food chain in 2004.

He recognized as “brand editor” that consumers (aka McDonalds readers) were increasingly going to be influencing the content and overall communications of his brand. BusinessWeek, for example, only began enlisting readers in the last year to seriously influence our story selection.

In my reporting over the years, I have come to view the consumer, not the company executive, as “brand advocate.” A brand advocate is considered someone so connected to the brand that they use their own resources and voice to amplify and echo the positive aspects of the brand: i.e. someone who organizes a Harley Davidson gathering or manages a fan site.

I know “Brand Advocate” has a nice ring, but it doesn’t accurately reflect the change that should be going on at companies. Sure, I’d say the brand manager role probably is dying. Perhaps “Brand Community Organizer” would be a far more accurate descriptor, though it doesn’t sound as snappy as “Brand Advocate.

Then again, there is a man in the White House who pretty successfully leveraged “Community Organizer” into a good gig.

Minute Maid Boost Taps The Energy Drink Shelf

David Kiley — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:21:33 -0500

An enhanced fruit juice from a mainstream brand like Minute Maid is tough to make cool against the myriad of New Age beverage boosters like Vitamin Water. And they especially look dowdy next to the Red Bulls of the world.

But Minute-Maid is making some headway, at least creatively, with the second iteration of its "Oops" campaign that shows how someone can be stupid, lame, or insensitive before drinking a Boost, and much sharper after a Boost.

The new effort from Doner is much better executed than the last ad I recall from this effort. That spot, you'll recall, showed a guy in a mall or airport first admitting to possible paternity (ouch).

My biggest problem here was that the casting of the woman. Let's just say she looks like no nun I ever saw at school. The makeup, etc.? No way. It was an over-reach by the copywriter. Couldn't she just have been his son's Kindergarten teacher?

This new effort, by ad agency Doner, is much better executed, and puts a good campaign premise on a solid footing for more engaging scenarios.

CMO Poll: Autos, Airlines and Banks Equally Tough Challenges For Marketers

David Kiley — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:15:43 -0500

The CMO CLUB Weekly Poll Question: What CMO position do you think would be most difficult?
(September 24 – September 30, 2009)

108 CMOs responded:

27.8% CMO at US Auto Maker
25.9% CMO at Large Financial Institution
24.1% CMO at Major Us Airline
11.1% CMO at Large Us Retailer
11.1% Other

A few Quotes from CMOs in the club who responded:

“US Auto Maker would be most difficult. Too many years of actions not supporting marketing spin on “Great Automobiles”. Huge trust and perception issues to overcome. CMO may not live through the length of time it will take to turn company around.”

“US Airline would be really tough given all the profitability issues. You are fighting for your lives vs. working through an economic downturn. A big difference. If the model is not profitable due to long term contracts, it’s much tougher to have the resources to sustain customer engagement.”

“Large Financial Institution would be really tough. More and more the CMOs role is focused on ensuring trust and credibility and for many of these companies, there is a huge gap in credibility that must be overcome.”

“Larger Retailer would be tough but there are proven success stories in turnarounds and repositioning in this industry”.
“Company and Industry don’t matter as much if you have a supportive CEO and the credibility and resources from your executive team and board.”

Chrysler Is Naming New Ad Agencies for Brand Makeovers

David Kiley — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:55:07 -0500

Chrysler LLC is down to choosing ad agencies for its brand restructuring: reportedly choosing a Texas agency to handle Ram truck business.

The automaker, now partly owned by Italian automaker Fiat, which is also responsible for managing the company following its Chapter 11 filing and government bailout, has served notice on long time ad agency BBDO.

The Richards Group of Dallas, whose last car account was Hyundai, according to trade publicattion Ad Age, will handle Ram truck. According to one high-ranking Chrysler official, though, that assignment is not finalized.

Chrysler is embarking on a questionable strategy of breaking the Ram pickup truck off to be its own brand. At some point in the near future, Ram will cease to carry the Dodge brand. Fiat, then, will in future years, roll other trucks and commercial vehicles into the Ram brand.

BBDO was able to secure an assignment to handle Chrysler brand advertising through the 4th quarter, playing up Chrysler 300 and Town & Country minivan in ads, according to sources. But Chrysler is expected to name another agency to handle Chrysler brand after that, positioning the brand for the future.

The agencies contending for Chrysler's assignments, which also includes the Dodge brand include: Publicis Groupe's Publicis & Hal Riney (one-time Saturn agency), San Francisco; sibling Fallon, Minneapolis (former BMW agency); Omnicom's Cutwater, San Francisco (former Jeep agency); and MDC Partners' Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami (former Volkswagen agency).

Still to be heard: which agency will handle Dodge, as well as Chrysler on a long term basis. It is possible that BBDO could retain the Chrysler brand, having scored the fourth-quarter assignment.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who has final say over the agencies chosen, was not even present for the pitches. Chrysler executives took video, storyboards and other material to Marchionne after they had reviewed the work.

Dodge is meant to be positioned as "Modern American Performance," while the plans for Chrysler brand are to take the nameplate into Cadillac and Lincoln territory over time both with product and pricing. Ram truck positioning is expected to push Ram as a truck for people who play hard. Statistics show that a huge percentage of Ram owners use their truck to tow all-terrain-vehicles, snowmobiles, Waverunners, etc., as well as to carry canoes, kayaks and the like.

Ford and Chevy seem to have the "work truck" positioning sewn up, so Chrysler is going to a "sporty" truck brand strategy.

CMO Club Poll: Retail Can Still Trump Trust Efforts

David Kiley — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:22:45 -0500

BusinessWeek last week published a story and video , "The Great Trust Offensive," about brand trust that was connected to our annual Best Global Brands report.

The focus of the story was how companies are refocusing a lot of efforts around winning, regaining or nurturing trust on the part of the consumer, who has become pretty disillusioned after a year of Recession, high unemployment, housing foreclsoures, the break-down of the credit markets, massive bailouts and the feeling that corporations in general have the system rigged to enjoy the riches when risk pays off, and lay off the downside on the tax-payer.

But in our weekly poll with The CMO Club, trust did not rank as high a priority as we might have thought. Instead, the responses we got spoke to enormous pressure to drive retail sales, which generally means advertising deals and discounts.

The CMO CLUB Weekly Poll Question: Which area have you had the largest increase in focus/resources in the 2nd half of 2009 vs. 1st half of 2009?
(September 17 – September 23, 2009)

106 CMOs responded:

42.8% Demand Generation
36.5% Sales Enablement
14.3% Brand Awareness and Consideration
6.4% Reputation/Trust Management

A few Quotes from CMOs in the club who responded:

“The pressure has never been greater to build the pipeline and help sales close deals. A number of branding initiatives are on hold until the economy turns around.”

“The trick is to combine sales/demand generation with branding. We are focused more and more on Branded demand generation.”

“We spent the last 6 months working on new positioning for the company. Early results have shown significant brand improvement and increased sales. Really thinking through your company position and how you want to engage with customers will increase sales and build your brand.”

“We need to think through improving customer trust in our company. We feel that providing value, changing our approach to servicing customers and ensuring all our employees are in sync with our new approach to service will improve the trust in our company. We don’t need specific reputation/trust programs.”

To learn more about The CMO Club, go to www.thecmoclub.com

The CMO CLUB Thought Leadership Summit, Nov. 12-13, San Francisco: www.regonline.com/cmoclubsummit
Sign up for "CMOs only" dinners at www.regonline.com/cmoclub_dinners

ABC Cuts Back On Commercials For New Shows

David Kiley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:45:24 -0500

ABC has done a peculiar thing for the new TV season, holding back ad inventory. It is a bit fuzzy why the network is doing it, though it's executives insist that, for example, eliminating the first ad break from some new shows might keep viewers engaged deeper into the show and less likely to switch channels.

ABC has removed the first ad break from new programs such as "Flash Forward," "Eastwick," Modern Family," and others starting the new season this week.

Sometimes, networks look to a single sponsor to buy one ad at the start of a popualr new show and one at the end, and offer a commercial free debut as a kind of gift to the viewer from the network and a single advertiser. Ford, for example, has done this with Fox's 24, and BMW did it with AMC's Mad Men.

But ABC didn't try to secure a single sponsorship for this latest idea. Not every show seems to lend itself to the treatment. Fox tried last year to sell single sponsors for new shows "Fringe" and "Dollhouse." But it dropped the tactic for the new season.

Some media buyers think ABC is seeing if they can get higher prices for the ad time they are selling by making less of it available. But the feeling is that cutting back on the ad pods, which can last five minutes, is a good idea if it keeps viewers in front of the same show for longer periods. Fewer ads, behavior research shows, also tend s to make consumers less likely to skip every ad they see with their DVR.

ABC execs insist they are simply trying to get viewers hooked into deeper into new shows. But for those people with DVRs, who routinely ad skip anyway, of course, it will just be one less commercial pod to hold the FF button down on.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong: "Don't Congratulate Me."

David Kiley — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:47:58 -0500

I bumped into AOL CEO Tim Armstrong during an Advertising Week conference in New York this week. I hadn't seen him since before he was named CEO of struggling online portal AOL. I thought it polite to say "congratulations" on the gig.

Armstrong, the former Google sales chief who surprised many by taking the AOL job, looked back at me and said..."Not yet...nothing to congratulate me on yet."

It's a healthy attitude you don't come across much in CEO land. Congratulate me when I have actually done something besides get the gig.

Nielsen Hooks Up With Facebook for Ad Effectiveness

David Kiley — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:40:29 -0500

Nielsen has struck a global, multiyear partnership with Facebook that begins with hundreds of studies this year to explore the effectiveness of advertising on the online social network.

Nielsen will design and execute the studies while data collection and consumer privacy will be handled by Facebook, which claims 300 million users.

The partnership "contributes a new and important dynamic element to our overall three-screen strategy," Nielsen Online CEO John Burbank wrote in an internal memo to Nielsen employees.

The deal calls for Nielsen to be Facebook's preferred market research provider.

The first product stemming from the relationship is called BrandLift; which will leverage data from user polls already at Facebook.

"BrandLift will be commercially available in the coming months, and we expect to conduct hundreds of studies with clients who advertise on Facebook by the end of the year," Burbank wrote.

It will be interesting to see how the efforts pan out, as polling wouldn't seem to be the best way to measure online effectiveness.

While Facebook is the undisputed king of social media at the moment, there are plenty of analysts, marketers and media who are starting to see cracks in Facebook's armor, and wonder if the network is destined to experience a rapid falloff in usage as www.myspace.com did, or becomes a ghetto of undesirable demographics.